Toadlena Trading Post

The story of the Toadlena Trading Post is intricately woven within the story of Two Grey Hills rugs.

It begins around 1868 when the Southwest Territories became part of the United States and the Navajo began settling on the reservation. The first white traders were fur trappers, who traded red cloth to the Navajo for access to the reservation.

Where there was water, there was rug trading.Mobility was limited to horse and wagon in the 1860s, so the traders traveled throughout the arid reservation, parked by water and waited for the natives to arrive. Most posts were established at water sites for this very reason, and the names of many trading posts begin with the Navajo word for water, which is “to.” Just like Toadlena.

The wagon “posts” brought the outside world to the Navajo. They were loaded with desirable supplies, such as coffee, flour, tools and hardware. In exchange, the traders took silver jewelry, sheared wool and hand woven Navajo textiles back to the white settlers.

Demand for Navajo rugs increased and higher prices were paid. By 1900 the traders and weavers were working together to develop marketable designs that characterized different regions of the Navajo Nation. Each was named for the trading post in its area, such as Two Grey Hills, Ganado, Teec Nos Pos and Chinle.

Toadlena Trading Post

The story of the Toadlena Trading Post is intricately woven within the story of Two Grey Hills rugs.

It begins around 1868 when the Southwest Territories became part of the United States and the Navajo began settling on the reservation. The first white traders were fur trappers, who traded red cloth to the Navajo for access to the reservation.

Where there was water, there was rug trading.Mobility was limited to horse and wagon in the 1860s, so the traders traveled throughout the arid reservation, parked by water and waited for the natives to arrive. Most posts were established at water sites for this very reason, and the names of many trading posts begin with the Navajo word for water, which is “to.” Just like Toadlena.

The wagon “posts” brought the outside world to the Navajo. They were loaded with desirable supplies, such as coffee, flour, tools and hardware. In exchange, the traders took silver jewelry, sheared wool and hand woven Navajo textiles back to the white settlers.

Demand for Navajo rugs increased and higher prices were paid. By 1900 the traders and weavers were working together to develop marketable designs that characterized different regions of the Navajo Nation. Each was named for the trading post in its area, such as Two Grey Hills, Ganado, Teec Nos Pos and Chinle.

This woman’s craft as a weaver was elevated and fostered and advocated for by Mark Winter at the Toadlena Trading Post in Two Grey Hills, New Mexico… giving her an income and enabling her daughter and her daughter’s daughter to be weavers, as well. Diné means “the people” in Navajo… it’s what they call themselves. She taught me to say, “Ahéhee’” which means, thank you.

Cider Press

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Kokopelli Petroglyph

Virginia Deal, 88, of Toadlena, a master weaver, passed from this life on Wednesday, July 29, 2015, in Shiprock, New Mexico.

Back when Indian weaving first splashed earth tones on New York's gaudy art scene, a rug trader visited Virginia Deal's loom in a remote corner of the Navajo Nation and made her an offer.

"How much for this rug?" he asked her.

Virginia pondered. She had learned her craft from Daisy Taugelchee, the Picasso of Navajo weavers. Virginia's rugs were among the finest in the Two Grey Hills region, where the reservation's best textiles had been woven for centuries. Her threads were as fine as silk, her designs startlingly intricate.

But it wasn't difficult to put a price on her rug. "A truck," she told the trader.